10 days – errands

A day driving around and hooking up with experts.

I dropped in to see Chuck of Northern Welding Specialties first, but he wasn’t there. He told me via cell that he was teaching at the college and perhaps we could meet after 3:00. I didn’t get back to his shop until 5:30 and missed him. We talked again and agreed that I can email him some drawings of the cargo brackets I’d like him to fabricate.

Next I swung by the indy Apple store City Mac to pick up a spare power supply for the Macbook Pro. I got to see Zeb and Greg. I also got to touch an IPad. They’ve sold a couple dozen already and Apple is not able to keep them stocked, but that’s typical for new product introductions.

1. √ Macbook Pro power supply [Apple] $80

Rolling down 31 toward town, I pulled into West Marine, a big box vendor and our local supplier of West Systems products for fiberglass repair. Bob sold me 2 x 200 feet of thin anchor line for Hello Word’s double anchors. He had given great guidance last August but I could only afford 2 x 50 feet of line then. The longer lines will allow Hello World to safely anchor in water up to 30 feet, greatly expanding our overnight options. Andy asked me about the trip as I hadn’t seen him since early September 2009. By coincidence he had moored his boat next to Hello World when she was anchored in Grand Traverse Bay. He had also recently come across a scrap of paper in his wallet with the ondesire.movie url scribbled on it. A friend saw it too and assumed it was some kind of porn site.

“Hey Andy, what’s that all about, eh?” Nudge, nudge, wink wink!

“On no, it’s this guys sailing blog, honest!”

We also wondered about the guy who had been rigging a 40′ cat for kite sailing and a big ocean trip. He had eventually launched, but neither Andy nor I had heard what happened to him.

1. √ 2 x 200 anchor rope $200

Oryana food coop was the next stop. The managers there let me buy a stack of thin plastic containers provided for bulk nut butters. These and yogurt containers are ideal for mixing fiberglass. I also bumped into Christie and invited her to the launch on May 8.

1. √ x2 paper towels [Seventh Generation] (fiberglass)
2. √ plastic bulk containers [Solo] (fiberglass) $5
3. √ bandaids [All Terrain]
4. √ non deet insect repellent, [Badger]. Green Ban is nor longer stocked.
5. √ x2 ribbon floss [Toms]
6. √ apples, bananas, ginger, carrots, liquid soap [Bronners], bread [Pleasanton Bakeries], cheese [Organic Valley

Down 8th Street from Oryana is Brick Wheels. They had worked on Zilliax’s Miyata bicycle last September, but their mechanics were booked up until after My 8th. They recommended City Bikes, so that’s where the handlebar replacement, tuning and brake work is happening. Should be ready by 5/6.

I ate some hot rice and beans from Oryana’s deli on the ride over to Scuba North. Captain Jack was there, he and Charles Craw had originally certified me as a NAUI diver in the late 80’s. Jack recently sold Scuba North but is continuing to work there, in his words, “Now I am making money instead of loosing it!”

My big 80 cubic foot tank is just too bulky and heavy to bring on Hello World. At Scuba North I checked two sizes of pony tanks, 19 cubic feet and 30 cubic feet.  I originally wanted to go with two 19’s and Jack explored hooking them together with discontinued fittings. Twining tanks is more common in Europe these days, so there are no USA distributors for new parts. Two small tanks would be easier to fit than one big one, but to use them together during a dive I would either have to buy a 2nd regulator or twin them, European fashion. With the gear Jack had on hand both tanks would have to be empty to break them apart – not a good solution.

Jack also explained that the water accumulation would reduce the capacity of the 19 faster than the 30 and that it would be a good idea to dry the small tanks before every fill. Here’s the specs…

19 cubic feet

height = 21″

diameter = 4.5″

wieght = 9 lbs

price = $125

estimated dive time at 30 feet = 19 minutes

30 cubic feet

height = 22.5″

diameter = 5.25″

wieght = 14 lbs

price = $145

estimated dive time at 30 feet = 25 minutes

With a diameter of 5.25″, the 30 would just barely fit in the Pelican 1720 rifle cases – .25″ to spare. This is probably the way to go, a good balance between the 19 (short dive time) and the 80 (too bulky to carry). I’m going to ponder this a few more days.

1. √ extra backpack strap for small tank [Seaquest] $20
2. √ shoulder pads for backpack [Dive Rite] $16
3. √ repair kit for skin out wetsuit [Aquaseal] $20

I bought a strap to fit a smaller tank to my backpack, padding for the shoulder traps, and aquaseal kits to to fix repair the dings in the Gul skin out wetsuit.

A sweep past along east bay gave me a chance to drop off the thumb drive Jeff had loaned me and to visit Interlochen Guitar and Dan Kelchak, the project’s luthier. My Larrivee parlor guitar was stepped on at a party right after I got it –  almost broke my heart! Dan patched it up, almost good as new. Since then the Larrivee’s been west to the beaches of Hawaii, east to the canyons of NYC and even camped on North Manitou Island. To survive sailing Around Lake Michgan, the Larrivee needs love. Dan and I came up with a plan for rehabilitation. He’s going to reinforce the internal structure, securing delicate wood struts and panels that have broken loose or split. After that, I’ll sand her back and secure the vulnerable injury with fiberglass. Her sound might not be as bright, but she be solid for years to come. His part of the project will run about $200.

1. √ repair Larrivee guitar $200

I dropped off the drowned iPhone at the UPS store for return to Apple. Out of warranty replacement is $200, I should see it this week.

1. √ out of warranty replacement iphone returned to Apple $200

Finally I drove down to Bear Lake to borrow the grinder and fordham tool for the fiberglass repair. Me and the men spent the evening finishing the Firefly TV series on Netflix.

Take my life
Take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me